Author: thunderbirdforgood

Thunderbird School of Global Management Adds “Financing Your Dream” Module to DreamBuilder Program
Freeport-McMoRan Foundation’s International Women Entrepreneurs Training Program Expands with a companion course to DreamBuilder

Glendale, Ariz., March 8, 2017 – In conjunction with International Women’s Day on March 8, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a unit of the ASU Knowledge Enterprise at Arizona State University, is launching an additional module regarding access to capital entitled “Financing Your Dream”, a companion course to the English-language version of the Freeport-McMoRan DreamBuilder (www.dreambuilder.org) program. This new, stand-alone, module will guide students through the process of creating a Capital Action Plan to obtain the funds needed for their businesses.

The Financing Your Dream course is free and available to current DreamBuilder students as well as graduates. It can be accessed anytime, anywhere at http://www.dreambuilder.org. The course provides an overview of the types of funding available and how to obtain it.

“In the communities where we operate around the globe, we see firsthand that small business development is a powerful driver of economic empowerment for women and the growth of both rural and urban economies,” said Tracy Bame, President of the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation. “Training is critical but it only goes so far. Women need support in identifying and accessing a range of sources of capital for which they can actually qualify.”

Launched in 2015, the English-language version of DreamBuilder is designed for women entrepreneurs who want to start or grow a small business. Since its inception, the online learning tool has enrolled nearly 9,000 learners. The 13-module program is funded and initiated by the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation, supported by Bluedrop Performance Learning, and implemented by Thunderbird School of Global Management through its department focused on social embeddedness, Thunderbird for Good. Thunderbird’s partnership with the Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership has led to an increase in enrollment.

“In working with our partner organizations and students of DreamBuilder, we’ve found that the lack of capital is a barrier to success. Through the Financing Your Dream module, women entrepreneurs get a step-by-step guide on how to obtain funding needed for their businesses. We are grateful for the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation’s vision to overcome this obstacle,” said Kellie Kreiser, Executive Director of Thunderbird for Good.

By working with partners, including the Small Business Administration, the English and Spanish-language version of DreamBuilder have enrolled more than 18,000 students. Twenty-seven customized, branded DreamBuilder landing pages are offered to clients at 34 Women’s Business Center sites, or nearly 1/3 of the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Centers, in 19 states. Learn more about DreamBuilder at: https://www.youtube.com/user/DreamBuilderFCX

“We believe that investing in women in general, and this program specifically, is an accelerator to overall community economic development. When women own businesses and increase their incomes, the overall economy of a region grows, creating healthier, prosperous and sustainable communities,” Bame added.

The English-language DreamBuilder is part of a 2013 Commitment to Action made by the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation at the Clinton Global Initiative and a federal commitment announced at the 2013 Equal Futures Partnership meeting in New York.

About Thunderbird School of Global Management
Since its inception in 1946, Thunderbird has focused exclusively on educating global leaders in the intricacies of international business and management. Now a unit of the Arizona State University Knowledge Enterprise, today Thunderbird is strengthened by the resources of America’s largest and most innovative public university. Thunderbird offers both graduate and undergraduate degrees as well as executive education in locations around the globe, with its main campus in Glendale, Arizona and offices in Geneva, Dubai, and Moscow. Visit: http://www.Thunderbird.asu.edu

About the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation
The Freeport-McMoRan Foundation is focused on partnering with communities to cultivate sustainable programs and projects that contribute to their enduring success. Its role is to facilitate productive dialogue, assist communities in self-defining priority issues, catalyze or participate in discussions on possible solutions, forge collaborations and offer opportunities for funding that contribute to a community’s long-term success. The Foundation’s efforts in community engagement are considered “Transforming Tomorrow Together.” In order to transform tomorrow, the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation focuses on comprehensive sustainable social development including robust engagement, sharing expertise, social investing, volunteerism, and creating opportunities through our business. Further, the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation believes that creating vibrant communities will take all kinds of partners working together- communities, schools, nonprofits, stakeholder groups and its own employees. Visit: http://www.freeportinmycommunity.com

About Bluedrop Performance Learning
Bluedrop Performance Learning Inc. (TSX-V: BPL) is an innovator in both the development of workplace e-learning and simulation as well as the way large organizations deliver, track and manage training. Bluedrop Learning Networks, a subsidiary of Bluedrop Performance Learning, is a training management platform that delivers and validates skills and credentials across multi-stakeholder workforce ecosystems. The Bluedrop360 platform enables workers to upgrade their skills on demand, validate their on the job competencies and keep their credentials as they move jobs. Visit: bluedroplearningnetworks.com.

In conjunction with the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a unit of the ASU Knowledge Enterprise at Arizona State University, will launch an English-language version of the Freeport-McMoRan DreamBuilder (www.dreambuilder.org) program. Designed for women entrepreneurs who want to start or grow a small business, the online learning program will be available throughout the United States in association with the Small Business Administration beginning immediately.

Thunderbird School of Global Management and other partners have joined WEConnect International and Vital Voices Global Partnership in taking a market-driven approach to advancing women-owned businesses in global supply chains, announcing a Commitment to Action today at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in New York City. The Commitment to Action will track and measure US$1.5 billion in global contract opportunities for women-owned businesses based outside of the U.S., and develop a more effective and efficient channel to identify and scale high growth women-owned businesses.

An online training tool for women entrepreneurs co-created by Thunderbird School of Global Management will be piloted at select Small Business Administration (SBA) Women’s Business Centers across the United States through a federal commitment announced today at the Equal Futures Partnership meeting in New York.

Terralever Expands Reach of Women’s Entrepreneurship Program
Digital marketing firm, Terralever, has designed a website portal to expand the reach of an online courseware that helps women entrepreneurs turn their dreams of starting or growing their own businesses into reality.
Terralever

Phoenix-based online marketing firm, Terralever, has designed a website portal equipped with multiple language capabilities to expand the reach of DreamBuilder: The Women’s Business Creator. DreamBuilder is an online courseware that helps women entrepreneurs turn their dreams of starting or growing their own businesses into reality.

Initiated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., an international mining company, the program is assisted by Bluedrop Performance Learning for courseware design and Thunderbird School of Global Management for the curriculum and project management. Terralever created intuitive websites for the content that would be attractive to both users and partner institutions.

A Spanish version of DreamBuilder is currently running in Chile and Peru. The program’s English counterpart, American DreamBuilder, was introduced by Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Clinton Global Initiative America on June 14.

“There are more than 8.6 million women-owned businesses in the United States employing 7.8 million Americans, and during the past six years when job growth across our economy has been slow, women-owned firms created 175,000 jobs,” says Clinton. “Supporting entrepreneurship among women is one of the best things we can do to grow our economy.”

Terralever, a strategic digital agency located in Tempe, AZ, partnered with Thunderbird to construct a front end website, http://www.dreambuilder.org, which created a more beautiful portal to the online course platform and added information and resources that were not previously available. Now, taking the next step toward international functionality, Terralever and Thunderbird have released the Spanish version of the website for use in Chile and Peru.

Cindy Yeager, Operations Manager at Thunderbird’s philanthropic arm, Thunderbird for Good, says, “Terralever not only captured and translated our passion, what we wanted to say, and how we wanted to say it into a website that reaches a very diverse audience, they also compressed the timeline to get the site up and running for our participation at Clinton Global Initiative America.”

DreamBuilder provides 12 online courses that were crafted with the help of faculty at Thunderbird School of Global Management. Participants can complete the courses at their own pace from any computer with internet access. While the courses are comprehensive, the material is far from dry: the integrated telenovelas, quizzes, and interviews ensure that DreamBuilder is as entertaining as it is useful.

“The methodology was very clear, precise, and easy to understand,” said Nelly Puertas Gallegos, one of the first users. “Any person at any level can learn from this program!”

“I’ve had the good fortune to work with talented, empowered women entrepreneurs across Arizona,” says Chris Johnson, CEO and founder of Terralever, “We see lots of startups here, but it’s especially exciting to be a part of a project that will empower women beyond our borders. DreamBuilder has the potential to change countless communities across the world, and we are honored to be a part of such a venture.”

DreamBuilder aims to reach 3,400 women over the next five years in Chile and Peru, and thousands more through American DreamBuilder.

About Thunderbird School of Global Management

Thunderbird is the world’s No. 1-ranked school of international business, with nearly 70 years of experience in equipping global leaders with the business skills and global mindset necessary to create sustainable prosperity worldwide. For more about Thunderbird, visit http://www.thunderbird.edu.

About Bluedrop Performance Learning

Bluedrop Performance Learning (TSX-V: BPL) is an innovator in workplace training. The company was launched in 2004 and has more than 100 employees in six offices across Canada. Bluedrop transforms workplace learning by designing and delivering training content that enables individuals to improve their skills and their employers to increase productivity. CoursePark.com is Bluedrop’s cloud-based eLearning platform that contains over 5,000 third-party online courses from the world’s leading publishers and subject matter experts.

Bluedrop is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and the American DreamBuilder project team.

About Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Freeport-McMoRan is a leading international mining company with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. Freeport-McMoRan operates large, long-lived, geographically diverse assets with significant proven and probable reserves of copper, gold and molybdenum. Freeport-McMoRan has a dynamic portfolio of operating, expansion and growth projects in the copper industry and is the world’s largest producer of molybdenum. The company’s portfolio of assets includes the Grasberg minerals district, one of the world’s largest copper and gold mine in terms of recoverable reserves; significant mining operations in the Americas, including the large scale Morenci and Safford minerals districts in North America and the Cerro Verde and El Abra operations in South America; and the Tenke Fungurume minerals district in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A new commitment to provide online business training to thousands of North American women entrepreneurs was announced today at the third annual Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) meeting in Chicago. The program titled, American DreamBuilder: The Women’s Business Creator, is spearheaded by Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. who partnered with Thunderbird School of Global Management and Bluedrop Performance Learning to help women entrepreneurs turn their dreams of starting or growing their own businesses into reality.

Margaret Free ´08 blogs about the graduation ceremony for the cohort of women entrepreneurs that completed a beta of DreamBuilder, the online business training program that will launch next month in Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s mining communities in Chile and Peru.

It has been a long road, but we finally made it. I could literally jump for joy (And I actually did a few times!) because we have worked so hard to get here and I must say that the feeling of accomplishment is overwhelming. The graduation ceremony took place at Paraninfo in downtown Arequipa in a beautiful historic building made of the white volcanic stone that Arequipa is known for. We had a light show, fresh flowers and more ambience that I ever could’ve asked for.

Thunderbird partners to reach 3,400 women with Freeport-McMoRan program

Interviews, quizzes and telenovelas sound more like content in an online pop culture magazine than a business management course, but it’s these unique interactive tools that an online business skills training and certification program will employ when it launches this month in several Chilean and Peruvian mining communities. The new program titled DreamBuilder: The Women’s Business Creator, was developed through a partnership between Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), Thunderbird School of Global Management and Bluedrop Performance Learning.